Thursday 20 April 2017 16:30, UK
Sam Allardyce has dismissed the prospect of John Terry joining Crystal Palace after Chelsea confirmed he will leave them at the end of the season.
Terry has spent his entire professional career at Stamford Bridge but will move on when his contract expires in the summer.
But despite Terry's pedigree and Allardyce's history of securing some big-name signings in the transfer market - including recruiting Youri Djorkaeff and Jay-Jay Okocha at Bolton and Michel Salgado at Blackburn - it appears unlikely Terry will be on his way to Selhurst Park.
"I've got Scott Dann, James Tomkins, Mamadou Sakho, Damien Delaney and Martin Kelly, so actually in central defence we're looking pretty secure," Allardyce said ahead of the Super Sunday clash with Liverpool.
"I'm not sure if that's going to be a position we'll look at if and when we're safe, and hopefully we are safe by the end of the season. But that position looks pretty healthy from the number of the players we have.
"I'm not so sure that John, yes, fantastic player that he is, yes he'd do us a great job, but with those amount of centre-halves at the club I can't see that happening at the moment."
Palace have no option to retain on-loan Liverpool centre-back Sakho beyond the end of his loan spell but Allardyce admits he would like to keep the France international, who is unable to play against his parent club at Anfield.
"Mama's been one of the reasons behind our recovery in recent weeks," added Allardyce.
"Would we like to keep him? Yes. We can't talk about it until we're safe."
Watch Liverpool v Crystal Palace on Super Sunday. Coverage begins on Sky Sports 1 HD at 4:15pm.
